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Chapter 3. Installing Red Hat Linux

Figure 3 13. Partitioning with Disk Druid

The partitioning tool used by the installation program is Disk Druid. With the exception of certain

esoteric situations, Disk Druid can handle the partitioning requirements for a typical installation.

3.18.1. Graphical Display of Hard Drive(s)

Disk Druid offers a graphical representation of your hard drive(s).

Using your mouse, click once to highlight a particular field in the graphical display. Double click to

edit an existing partition or to create a partition out of existing free space.

Above the display, you will see the drive name (such as /dev/hda ), the geom (which shows the

hard disk's geometry and consists of three numbers representing the number of cylinders, heads, and

sectors as reported by the hard disk), and the model of the hard drive as detected by the installation

program.

3.18.2. Disk Druid's Buttons

These buttons control Disk Druid's actions. They are used to change the attributes of a partition (for

example the file system type and mount point) and also to create RAID devices. Buttons on this screen

are also used to accept the changes you have made, or to exit Disk Druid. For further explanation,

take a look at each button in order:

New: Used to request a new partition. When selected, a dialog box appears containing fields (such

as mount point and size) that must be filled in.

Edit: Used to modify attributes of the partition currently selected in the Partitions section. Select 

ing Edit opens a dialog box. Some or all of the fields can be edited, depending on whether the

partition information has already been written to disk.

You can also edit free space as represented in the graphical display to create a new partition within

that space. Either highlight the free space and then select the Edit button, or double click on the

free space to edit it.

Delete: Used to remove the partition currently highlighted in the Current Disk Partitions section.

You will be asked to confirm the deletion of any partition.